The Lodger Teasers

Not long to go before The Lodger hits our screens and SFX are again teasing us with a tantalising preview of whatâ€™s to come.

The episode sees the Doctor having to pass himself off as a regular Joe to solve the mystery of Aickman Road, sharing a flat with Craig Owens (James Corden) which contains a staircase that people go up, but never come down.

Lets get this out of the way first: Does James Corden ruin everything? Surprisingly (well if youâ€™re not a fan of the ever-present, lowest common denominator Gavin and Stacey star) the episode isnâ€™t another Love & Monsters, in fact SFX have called his performance â€˜quite likableâ€™. It maybe faint praise but itâ€™s a relief nonetheless.

The list of twenty (twenty!) points hints at recurring sayings and characters with last weeks guest star set to make a few appearances – if youâ€™ve seen the trailer youâ€™ll no doubt have noticed the Van Gogh lobby card on Craig Owens fridge.

Even the Doctors previous incarnations which have all made an appearance at some point get another look in:

â€œA certain face shows up for the fourth time this series; another for a third; and others for a second time.â€

Even a particularly popular phase is used again though this seems like a two horse race between â€˜Geronimo!â€ and â€œBowties are coolâ€.

Not much is revealed about this weeks enemy though at some point:

â€œThereâ€™s a monsterâ€™s hand in a drawerâ€

Ladies may have already spotted it amongst the recently released gallery of images but, for the rest of us, thereâ€™s a â€œparticularly revealing momentâ€ for Matt Smith fans.

In the tradition of Midnight this episode is a companion- lite story, leaving most of the heavy lifting to the Doctor though at some point: â€œAmy discovers something.â€

Whether or not that something helps answer the recent question on Kasterborous in which it is argued that Amy Pond has yet to fulfill the character we were promised in The Eleventh Hour remains to be seen – but I wouldnâ€™t be surprised if Roryâ€™s name wasnâ€™t uttered at some point.

Everyone has a favourite Doctor and mine - just for his honesty, his fairness and his ability to not notice the Master's awful, awful disguises/anagrams (Sir Gilles Estram!?!) - has to be the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison. The stories didn’t serve him as well as his acting served those stories.